This is one of those bizarre journalism ethics things I just don’t understand. All over the local media this morning is news of a leaked photo of Maurice Clemmons dead body (here, here and here, for example). Yet nobody’s willing to actually show the controversial image. (Slog provided a link, but that’s as dead as Clemmons now, so it doesn’t really count.)
So if the photo isn’t safe for public consumption, why the hell are you teasing us with it? It’s either news or it’s not news, and since there seems to be unanimity in our local media that it is news, don’t you think you owe it to your readers to treat them like adults, and give them the option of viewing the photo for themselves?
I’ve searched for the photo and didn’t find it in Google’s cache or anywhere else, but I trust my readers. So if anybody has a copy of the photo and wants to pass it along, I’ll post it here to HA and give you all the choice of viewing it for yourselves.
UPDATE:
Several readers have sent me the photo via email. Thanks. Here it is.
Someone made a website out of his name.
A commenter on blatherwatch posted it in a thread about O’Reilly sending his producer out to ambush the Tacoma judges who granted bail. The photo isn’t much to look at. Other than the idea of seeing a dead body, there isn’t much there. He looks to have at least two bullet holes, one in the right cheek, another in the abdomen.
is it b/c they are afraid to delve into the real story about rob mckenna’s role in the release?
@3 Maybe
Ron & Don said people could grab the photo from their radio show’s website (but added that they didn’t recommend passing it around, that the police feel it inflame the wrong kind of passions).
Oh, for heaven’s sake. I’m perfectly happy to take the cops’ word for it that the guy’s dead, and let it go at that.
From what I’ve seen, he wasn’t all that great to look at when he was alive.
If there’s anyone out there who gets some kind of perverse pleasure from looking at the corpse of a cop killer, there’s probably a seat waiting for you in hell, right next to Mr. Clemmons.
@6 Good point.
Yea, I don’t have any reason to look at the pictures. I noticed that in a police shooting of a man in Chattanooga a few months ago, they didn’t release pictures of the body, but the newspaper did print a coroner’s diagram of the body, with the location of each of the bullet holes (the number of times the guy was shot was an issue). In my mind, that does seem to be an adequate way to handle the subject.
media are hypocrites
@3 What is Rob McKenna’s role?
Sadly I looked at the photo. I don’t think it should be published.
2. Don spews:
If it’s true…GREAT!
Thanks O’Reilly,
These Judges should not be above accountability.
Perhaps other Judges will be more careful in the future cuz this guy is DONE!
http://opieradio.posterous.com.....washington